The Texas Punk Problem

Through the past darkly

As a UT student in 1980, Bill Daniel arrived younger, straighter, and in awe of the clientele at Drag-bound venue Raul's, birthplace of Austin punk, a scene he describes as a trans-class mix of art students and countercultural ruffians. He became known as "Photo Bill," a resident photographer and contributor to the Western Roundup zine, witnessing the town's first mosh pit via Black Flag in '81 and eventually hiring on with the Butthole Surfers as their tour projectionist. "I felt like I was being conducted by the bands that were playing," says Daniel, who captured bodies in motion as he shot in black-and-white from the stage, flash turned full blast, arms loose, never looking through the viewfinder. Thirty years after the fact, Daniel's ready to pull the trigger on The Texas Punk Problem, a photo book documenting a golden era of rebelliousness in the Lone Star State. During his visit to the Chronicle in April, our eyes bugged out at his blown-out prints of familiar faces on bygone stages. The book doesn't arrive until 2015, but Daniel's looking for support now. Admirers and perspective patrons can find him at bill@billdaniel.net.